Various forms of storage systems are used today. These forms include direct attached storage (DAS) network attached storage (NAS) systems, storage area networks (SANs), and others. Network storage systems are commonly used for a variety of purposes, such as providing multiple users with access to shared data, backing up data and others.
A storage system typically includes at least one computing system executing a storage operating system for storing and retrieving data on behalf of one or more client computing systems (“clients”). The storage operating system stores and manages shared data containers in a set of mass storage devices.
Networked storage systems are used extensively in NAS, SAN and virtual environments. The infrastructure for such storage systems use various components, for example, switches, storage devices and others. To effectively manage the infrastructure i.e., a large number of logical objects that represent the storage infrastructure components' are maintained. These logical objects are associated with numerous counters and data associated with counters is collected periodically. A storage administrator can become overwhelmed if all the data associated with the various objects/counters is provided. Continuous efforts are being made to efficiently monitor information in networked storage systems and providing information to users that is helpful and desirable based on a user's operating environment and needs.